PRELIMINARY DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR ACCESS AND OPERATIONS IN EARTH-MOON L_1/L_2 ORBITS

摘要

Within the context of manned spaceflight activities, Earth-Moon libration point orbits could support lunar surface operations and serve as staging areas for future missions to near-Earth asteroids and Mars. This investigation examines preliminary design considerations including Earth-Moon L_1/L_2 libration point orbit selection, transfers, and stationkeeping costs associated with maintaining a spacecraft in the vicinity of L_1 or L_2 for a specified duration. Existing tools for multi-body trajectory design, dynamical systems theory, and orbit maintenance are leveraged in this analysis to explore end-to-end concepts for manned missions to Earth-Moon libration points.